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Woodland Culture Period
Excerpts taken from Sun Circles and Human Hands (1957)
by Emma Lila Fundaburk and Mary Douglass Fundaburk Foreman.
Population continued to grow and to spread from the largest
streams to the smaller creeks and quiet sloughs. This spread of
the more numerous Woodland population probably accelerated as the
bow and arrow gradually displaced the throwing stick. Near these
secluded village sites, the Woodland people constructed burial
mounds to hold their dead. These relatively small mounds, often
conical in shape, were sometimes near a river; frequently there
were two or more such mound together. The number of burials in a
mound varied from one two several dozen; some were single
interments, others were multiple burials on the same or different
prepared surfaces. Some of the burial mounds were constructed
over a period of time, and built up in several layers;
occasionally shells, clay logs, or stone slabs separated the
layers or were placed around the individual or mass graves. A
prominent feature of this specialized burial custom was the
placement of ornaments and tools with the bodies. The tools and
ornaments of the Woodland people were similar to those of the
Archaic culture, but they were more varied and often showed finer
workmanship. Their tools included chipped drills, knives, celts,
scrappers, axes and a variety of smaller projectile points. A new
addition to the tool assemblage was the large chipped green
stone, limestone or flint spade; the presence of the spade may
have indicated a rudimentary agricultural development; however,
it was probably used for digging graves, scooping soil for burial
mound fills and excavating post holes for house framing. These
spades are sometimes found in the graves under the skull of the
skeleton or in the fill of the mound. Specialized pecked, ground
and polished stone articles found with Woodland remains were
poled celts; plummets - net sinkers or ornaments; pipes - elbow,
platform and occasional zoomorphic forms; medicine tubes; boat
stones; expanding center gorgets; and a few ornamental or
ceremonial effigies. Many Archaic-introduced tools, as stone
axes, continued to be used.
Copper artifacts increased in number and variety; they included
reel-shaped objects, chisels, celts, bicymbal ear spools, dried
beads, bracelets, rolled-sheet beads (tubes), a few copper plated
objects (over stone or wood), including ear spools and gorgets.
Galena, mica, hematite, tar, red ochre, and asphalt have also
been found in Woodland graves. Bone and antler tools, as skeletal
remains, are much rarer that at Archaic sites; such tools were
probably extensively used, but have decayed.
Shells other than mussel were more numerous at Woodland than at
Archaic sites. Marginella and olivella shells are numerous at
some sites. Pearl beads and turtle carapaces have also been
found. In addition to couch shell beads, conch dippers are a
significant burial deposit. Shell tools have also occurred at
some Woodland sites. The Woodland people doubtless made extensive
use of wood also; fragments and impression of mats, baskets and
house frames are frequently found.
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